Hypocrisy #4: An Endless Hell

There is no doctrine that stands in such stark opposition to what Christianity claims to proclaim as the dogma of an endless hell. Christianity claims to preach the love of God, as expressed at the opening of Reformed church services in these words:

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth, who remains faithful and never forsakes the works of His hands…

Aren’t these words magnificent?! They express trust in a God who created everything and never gives up His creatures. That is unquestionably good news! The hypocrisy lies in the fact that, during the same church service, people are warned about damnation, hell, or eternal death. In other words, what is announced so promisingly at the outset is flatly denied in what follows. For EITHER God does not forsake the works of His hands OR He has an endless hell and damnation in store. It is hypocritical to say the first while meaning the second.

Judgment, adjudication, and punishment are biblical realities. Humanity was expelled from the Garden of Eden. God destroyed the earth with a great flood. Sodom and Gomorrah perished in fire and sulfur. Israel was sent into exile. And so forth. Yet nowhere in Scripture is judgment a final destination. Judgment and adjudication are corrective measures. God’s anger always serves His lovingkindness. As the psalmist says (Psalm 30:5):

For there is only a moment under His anger But a lifetime under His benevolence.

The relationship between God’s anger and His favor is that of a moment compared with a long life. God judges – that is, He administers justice and sets things right. In orthodox Christianity, however, this logic is regarded as “the heresy of Universal Reconciliation.” How did things ever come to this? The answer lies in early church history, when the Greek word aion (eon, age) began to be translated as “eternity” and the adjective aionios (eonian) as “eternal.” That was disastrous. For it was no longer a matter of “chastening eonian” (Matt. 25:46) or “eonian extermination” (2 Thess. 1:9), but of eternal punishment and eternal destruction. Endless, in other words. “And the fumes of their torment are ascending for the eons of the eons” (Rev. 14:11) would henceforth be made to last “forever and ever.” Behold the creation of a dreadful, never-ending fate…

Entirely in line with this, an actual location near Jerusalem – the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna – was turned into a “hell.” All the beautiful words about God’s love and faithfulness were smothered by this threat. The doctrine of hell became the threat used to pressure people into becoming Christians. Hence the seriousness with which abandoning this doctrine is treated: it would supposedly remove the motivation for “evangelism” and missions…

If God remains angry and punishes endlessly, then He is a terrible demon. Worse than any psychopathic war criminal. The idea is based on twisting the words of Scripture, with the result that God is turned into a devil. It is impossible to believe this while also believing the Good News of the Savior, Vivifier, Justifier, and Reconciler of all (1 Tim. 4:10; 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:18; Col. 1:20).

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